“The life and fate of Ivan Flyagin is a road to people for the atonement of sin. The life path of Ivan Flyagin (based on the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N.S. Leskov) The Enchanted Wanderer Trials of Ivan Flyagin
The image of Ivan Flyagin, despite its apparent simplicity and simplicity, is ambiguous and complex. Leskov, learning the secrets of the Russian character, seeks the origins of holiness in the deeds of a sinner, portrays a truth-seeker who has committed many unrighteous acts, but through suffering, comes to repentance and faith.
We first meet the hero on a ship sailing to Valaam. He was a monk of heroic stature, fifty-three years old, dark-skinned, with thick, graying hair, a beard and mustache. After talking with his fellow travelers, he told the story of his wanderings. He was a serf, his mother died, and his father served as a coachman for the master.
He spent his entire childhood at the stables and learned to understand horses well. As a teenager, he was assigned to be a horse rider, to help manage six horses. Once, when the horses rushed, he almost died saving the count’s family, and as a reward he asked for an accordion, which speaks of his selflessness and innocence. Once, Ivan whipped a monk who had dozed off in a cart and was blocking the road, and he fell under the wheels and died. Ivan dreamed of this monk and told him that he was a child prayed for and promised to God, and therefore should go to a monastery. This prophecy haunted him all his life.
More than once he looked into the eyes of death, but neither earth nor water took him. Many trials fell to his lot. Having escaped with the gypsies from the count's estate, he will wander for many years. He would endure ten years of captivity among the Gentiles, after escaping he would work as a military commander for the prince, then he would go as a recruit to the Caucasus, where he would fight for more than fifteen years, and become an officer and Knight of St. George. After returning, I had the opportunity to work as an information officer in an address office and as an actor in a booth. In the end, he goes to the monastery.
Ivan did not have the chance to lead a settled life, to find a home and family. He is "an inspired vagabond with an infant soul." He is not characterized by Christian humility, because he cannot put up with evil and injustice, but he is a deeply religious person. But he feels that his purpose is not just faith in God, church services are boring for him, he dreams of serving with faith for the fatherland. He has an independent, honest and open nature. Ivan considers himself a terrible sinner, because he is involved in the deaths of three people, suffers and repents; although the monk died due to his negligence, the Tatar accepted death in a fair fight, and pushed Grushenka off a cliff into the river, swearing to her that he would do this, saving her from a shameful fate. Having entered a monastery, he wanders as a pilgrim to holy places, atonement for his sins, and becomes a righteous man.
Essay about Ivan Flyagin
“The Enchanted Wanderer” is a story by Nikolai Leskov, published by him in 1837. The main attention in the story is given to Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, whose life is described in detail by the author. Leskov was able to present in his story a new image, which has no analogues in Russian literature.
Why did Leskov create the image of an “enchanted wanderer” in his hero? He perceives the world around him as a true miracle. As the main character, he does not have a specific dream in life, which for him is endless. This person always moves forward along the path of life and sees every new challenge as a challenge from fate.
It should be noted that Leskov’s character took on his appearance from the legendary Ilya Muromets. Flyagin has a gigantic stature, a dark face and a truly heroic physique. At first glance, he is not even fifty years old. Ivan Severyanovich cannot sit in one place throughout the entire story. You might think that he is not inclined to trust anyone. But the main character later refutes this. And the salvation of Count K. is proof of this. This is exactly what Flyagin did with the prince and a young girl named Grusha.
You can add to the characteristics of this person the fact that he is completely devoted to higher powers, for which he received his protection from them. Flyagin is not vulnerable to death. Death overtook him many times, but he could not die. He thinks that the earth does not want to accept him for the terrible sins that he committed. The hero believes that it was his fault that many murders occurred. Ivan Severyanovich has his own morality in life, but he always remains honest with himself and the other characters in the story. Sometimes he is too simple and naive, good-natured to the core and open to everyone in his soul, but when evil comes, which he has to deal with, he can even be cruel.
The main driving force of his actions is no small force from nature. And this forces Flyagin to do reckless things. In his youth, Ivan was not very worried about this, but later he realizes that he is responsible for this. The author of the work does not hesitate to mention that his character is a man with enormous internal and physical strength. This lies in his ability in any situation to do what is necessary and what is right. Ivan Flyagin is in complete harmony with those around him and, like a true hero, is always ready to help.
In conclusion, we can say that all the features of the Russian national character are evident in the image of this man. But that doesn't mean he's flawless. He is more prone to inconsistency. In some places he is smart and quick-witted, and in others he is the opposite. He can do crazy things, but at the same time he is drawn to do good deeds. So, we can say with confidence: Ivan Severyanovich is the personification of the broad Russian personality, its infinity.
Details
In the story "The Enchanted Wanderer" Ivan Flyagin has the main role.
His image appears before us in the form of a strong Ilya Muromets. Even at the beginning of the story, the Author compares him with this knight. He was tall, of strong build with a dark complexion.
Our main character was born in the name of a count, his father and mother were serfs and... Mom died while giving birth to Ivan. And my father worked in a stable. The boy spent all his time with horses. And when he more or less grew up, he was put to work with his dad. Once they were taking the count near the temple. And one priest began to daydream. And Vanya hit him with a whip.
When Ivan was taking the Duke to Voronezh, a large cliff appeared in front of them. . Ivan managed to slow down, but he himself fell into it. But he inexplicably survived. The Duke, of course, thanked him. And instead of going to the monastery, Ivan chose an accordion, which he never knew how to play.
Soon Flyagin was sent to crush stone for garden paths. But he got tired of everyone laughing at him and decided to run away and hang himself. As soon as he hung in the noose, someone cut the rope. It turned out to be a gypsy, who then suggested that Ivan steal. And so that he would not betray him, he ordered the horses to be stolen from the stables of the count for whom Ivan served. Ivan did it. And when they sold these horses, he received only one ruble. In the end, he went to surrender to the police. This speaks to his next quality - honesty. Even though he went to steal horses, he still confessed later.
Soon Ivan got a job with the master, his wife left him for a military man and abandoned her infant daughter. And Flyagin nursed this girl. This shows his love for children.
One day, Ivan and the master’s little daughter went to the shore of the bay; the girl had sore legs and the doctor said that they should be buried in the squeak. But her mother saw the girl on the shore. She asked Ivan to give her the child, but he did not agree. Then the cavalryman husband of this young lady appeared and wanted to pay money to give them the child, but he received nothing except a hand job under the eye. The uhlan did not raise any money, and this pleased Ivan. Flyagin at first did not want to give up the child, but when he saw the girl’s mother stretching out her hands to her, he still took pity. Suddenly a gentleman with a pistol appeared on the beach and Ivan had to leave with the cavalryman and the girl’s mother.
After they arrived in the city, the uhlan said that he could not keep serfs who had escaped. I gave him money and let him go. At that moment I felt very sorry for Ivan. He had nowhere to go. He wanted to go and surrender to the police. But I decided to go have some tea and bagels. Later I saw how Khan Dzhangar and the king were selling a mare, and people were fighting for her. After this, a cavalryman entered the battle, but Ivan went to fight in his place. This speaks of his positive quality - bravery. But the fact that he whipped the Tatar with a whip speaks of his mercilessness. They wanted to take him to prison, but the Tatars took pity on Ivan and took him in with them.
Ivan lived with them for ten years, was a doctor, but when he wanted to run away, the Tatars caught him, cut his heels and put cut horsehair there. Initially, it was very painful for him to walk. And so Ivan lived in this horde for many years. He had two wives and many children. Once the khan ordered him to cure his wife and let Ivan into his yurt, after which he had two more wives.
Once the priests came to the Tatars, they wanted them to accept Christianity, but the Tatars refused. And after some time, the main character of the story found one dead priest in the field, but never found the second. The next time unknown people came to them, they were in bright clothes. These people wanted to buy horses. One evening they set off fireworks and all the horses ran away, and the Tatars, in turn, ran to catch them. Ivan understood what scared the horses and Tatars, and repeated the same thing. One fine day he found earth that corrodes the skin. And he came up with this plan: to pretend to be sick and when the earth corroded his feet, horsehair came out, and pus along with it. Then our hero decided to set off the last fireworks and left.
After some time, Ivan went to the Caspian Sea, and then came to Astrakhan. I earned money there and drank it away. When he woke up he was in prison. From prison he was sent to his native estate. But Father Ilya refused to accept his confession, since he had lived in sin among the Tatars for a very long time. The count, who began to pray to God after the death of his wife, refused to have non-communion servants, gave him his passport and let him go.
When he left the estate, Ivan came to the market. I saw a gypsy trying to sell a bad horse to a simple peasant. Since Ivan was offended by the gypsies, he helped the peasant. Afterwards, he began to walk around the bazaars and help the peasants, advising which horses they could buy and which they could not. Soon he became the king of gypsies and profiteers.
Once the prince asked to tell him the secret of how he chooses horses. Ivan began to teach him, but the prince did not understand anything, then he invited Ivan to work with him. And they became friends with the prince. In order not to spend extra money, Ivan left it to the prince. But one day the prince went to the market and ordered that a mare be sent there, which Ivan really liked; he wanted to drink it hot, but there was no one to leave the money with. Then he went to a tavern to drink tea, and saw a man there who was drinking and not getting drunk. Then Ivan asked to teach him this way too. Then the man told him to drink glass after glass but make passes with his hands before each one, so Ivan learned to drink and not get drunk and kept checking to see if he had all the money in his bosom. By evening, the friends quarreled.
They were kicked out of the tavern, then the beggar led Ivan to a “guest place” where there were only gypsies. And then Ivan sees a gypsy woman who was singing songs, they called her Grusha. Then Ivan gave her all his savings.
When he sobered up, he admitted to the prince that he had spent his entire treasury on one gypsy woman. After which he fell ill with alcoholic psychosis. When Ivan recovered, he learned that the prince had spent all his money to ransom Grusha from the crowd. She fell in love with the prince very much, and he began to be burdened by her, taking advantage of her lack of education. Ivan, in turn, felt very sorry for her.
One day the gypsy woman suspected that the prince had a mistress and sent Ivan to the city to find out. He went to the prince’s former mistress and found out that he wanted to marry Grusha to Ivan. When Flyagin returned from the market, he saw that Grusha was nowhere to be found. Then he found a gypsy woman on the shore, it turned out that the prince locked her in a house in the forest, guarded by girls, and she ran away from them. She asked to kill the prince’s bride, otherwise she would become “the most shameful woman.” Ivan could not stand it and threw her off the cliff.
Then Ivan ran away and began to wander around the world until Grusha appeared to him and showed him the right path, on which he met two old people. These old men made Ivan new documents according to which he was Pyotr Serdyukov.
Then he asked me to go to the Caucasus and served there for more than fifteen years. Then he was ordained an officer and sent into retirement. In St. Petersburg, he worked as a “registration officer” and earned little because he received the letter “fita”, and there were very few surnames with this letter. And he decided to leave this job. They didn’t hire him as a coachman and he had to go work as an actor. There he is, pretending to be a demon.
The others asked him if the demon pretending to be a gypsy was bothering him? He overcame the demon with prayer, but little devils began to brainwash him. Because of them, Ivan killed the monastery's cow. For this and other sins he was locked in a cellar, and there he read newspapers and began to prophesy. Then they took him into the forest and put him in a hut, and locked him there. Then they called a doctor to him and he could not understand the prophet Ivan or the crazy one. And the doctor told him to let him out.
He ended up on the ship making his way to a church service. At this point, the passengers did not ask him anything else.
The image of Ivan Flyagin in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” was at one time honest and correct, and at another time cunning and merciless. I liked Ivan Flyagin because it seems to me that he has more good qualities than bad.
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The story “The Enchanted Wanderer” presents its reader with the image of a man who cannot be compared with any of the characters in Russian literature. This is the image of a hero who easily merges with any troubles of life. Flyagin Ivan Severyanych or the “enchanted wanderer,” as the author of the story called him, is “charmed” by his own life, in particular, and by the whole world, in general. He accepts life as a gift, a great miracle that has no limits or boundaries. Wherever the hero’s fate takes him, he discovers something new and surprising and, perhaps because of this, is absolutely not afraid of change.
The image of Flyagin absorbed everything Russian. This is a man similar to the hero of ancient epics - huge in stature, open-faced, and his hair is curly and has a noble gray cast. He looks about fifty years old, he is kind, simple-minded and open-hearted to everyone he meets. The fact that Ivan Severyanych cannot get along in one place does not mean that he is fickle or frivolous; this way of life rather suggests that the hero strives to drink the whole world to the dregs. At least as much as he will manage in the years God has given him.
The life of Ivan Severyanych Flyagin
At birth, Flyagin took the life of his mother (he was born with a very large head, for which he received the nickname “Golovan”), but at the same time, he himself seemed invulnerable to death, which he was ready to accept at any moment. The hero holds his horses at the edge of a cliff, almost commits suicide, wins a dangerous fight, escapes from captivity, and avoids bullets during military operations. All his life he walks on the edge of death, but the earth is in no hurry to accept him.
Since childhood, Ivan loved horses and knew how to handle them. But his fate was such that he had to flee and steal horses. Wandering, Flyagin ends up with the Tatars and spends 10 years of his life in captivity (he is captured at the age of 23). After some time, Flyagin entered the army and served in the Caucasus for 15 years. Here he accomplishes a feat, for which he is promoted to officer and given a reward (St. George's Cross). As a result, Flyagin becomes a nobleman. Finally, at the age of about 50, Flyagin entered a monastery (on one of the islands in Lake Ladoga). In the monastery, Flyagin receives a church name - Father Ishmael. Having become a monk, Flyagin also serves as a coachman in the monastery. But Flyagin does not find peace even in the monastery: he is overcome by demons, and the gift of prophecy is revealed to him. The monks are trying in every possible way to drive out the “evil spirit” from him, but to no avail. Finally, Flyagin is released from the monastery, and he goes to wander through holy places.
Flyagin observes the canons of his own morality, remaining honest in life to others and to himself. On his account, the lives of a monk, a Tatar and a young gypsy were cut short. But not a single one of the wanderer’s misdeeds was born out of hatred or lies, nor was it committed with a thirst for profit or out of fear for one’s own life. The monk died as a result of an accident, the Tatar was killed in battle on equal terms, and the gypsy herself begged to end her unbearable existence. In the story of this unfortunate woman, Ivan took the sin upon himself, thereby freeing the girl from the need to commit suicide.
Ivan Severyanych talks about his life to random fellow travelers during a boat trip. The hero does not hide anything, since his soul is an open book. In the fight for justice, he is cruel, as in the case when he cut off the tail of the master's cat because she got into the habit of strangling his pigeons. But in another situation, Flyagin went to war for a boy whom his loving parents were afraid of losing. The only reason for Ivan’s actions is the natural force that overflows from him. All this power and prowess of a Russian hero is quite difficult to manage. That’s why Ivan Severyanych could not always calculate it correctly. And therefore the hero of the story cannot be called impeccable; he is multifaceted - merciless and kind, smart and naive, daring and romantic.
N.S. Leskov never lost faith in the Russian people, in his ability to overcome all disasters. The writer imagined and saw in the usual turmoil, even “wildness,” of simple Russian life some bright beginnings. This was clearly manifested in “The Enchanted Wanderer,” a story about Ivan Flyagin, the son of a serf peasant woman and a coachman. What is so unusual about the fate and life path of this hero?
Many researchers call Flyagin “a truth-seeker of the Russian land.” In principle, this is a fair definition, but not precise enough. What truth is Flyagin looking for? Can he seek the truth given his impulsiveness and lack of education?
Apparently, Flyagin is a special type, a kind of “nugget”. He is, of course, a seeker, but not of truth as such, but of beauty, the meaning of life. Ivan is a “prayerful” son, that is, a son begged from God. From birth, he is characterized by restlessness, an eternal desire (through failures and “breakdowns”) for a bright, energetically full, “flowery” existence. Hence the “fall” of this hero and, ultimately, the enlightenment of the spirit, the rejection of obscene things.
Fate seemed to test Flyagin on the strength of the sense of goodness and common sense inherent in him. You will “perish many times and never perish” - it was predicted to him back in his adolescence. And so it happened. The hero's whole life is a chain of misadventures, the cause of which was often himself, his thirst for the extraordinary, the play of internal forces that did not find useful use.
Thus, even as a child, Flyagin turned out to be an indirect culprit in a “road” accident, as a result of which the monk died. As an adult, the hero did not avoid adventurous situations (combat with the Tatars near Penza). Because of this, Ivan Severyanovich had to hide in steppe settlements for more than ten years, where he had horsehair implanted in his heel, and he could not walk normally. Many times Flyagin was a victim of gullibility and a destructive passion for the “green snake”... But all the misadventures not only did not weaken his craving for life and perfection, but also strengthened it. Hence the hero’s wanderings, the constant search for something that would satisfy the “spiritual thirst”, the craving for simplicity and the extraordinary. All this explains the accent word in the title of the story - “enchanted”.
The charm of life and beauty is revealed with unusual force in the tavern scene. A fairly drunk Ivan Flyagin gives all his master’s money (five thousand rubles) for a gypsy spell to the beautiful Grushenka: he “swept all his “swans”, that is, large banknotes, under her feet during the dance. In the excitement of the dance, the hero’s soul was inflamed: “Didn’t you, damned one, make both the earth and the sky?” The words are blasphemous and, at the same time, deeply sincere and powerful. “Cursed” in Ivan’s mouth sounds like a description of everything that is beautiful on earth...
In the depths of the hero’s soul, sparks of life, hope, if possible, atonement for “sins”, and his acquisition of truth always shone brightly. And Flyagin found this truth, at least for himself, in relation to the situation in which he found himself after all his wanderings and deprivations. Having no family, permanent place of residence, or specific activities, the hero constantly strives for the better, tries to unravel the “meaning” of life. In the end, he ends up in a monastery, hoping to stop the “restlessness” of his soul there and find the truly beautiful. In this sense, Flyagin reminds us of a “future son” who, after many misadventures, comes to the monastery in order to atone for his “sins” there.
But, once in the monastery, Ivan did not get rid of the torment of his conscience (for the death of Grushenka, for the death of the Tatar monk). He kept imagining that Satan was pursuing him. It was decided to put Flyagin in a “cellar” so that there, through prayers and asceticism, liberation from obsession would come. And so it happened. But at the same time, something else happened: the hero’s incredibly important insight. It was sent down to him to see and understand what others - alas! – has not been given to this day. Since then, our hero was filled with “fear for his Russian people and began to pray... everything about his homeland... and for his people.”
The meaning of the wanderings, the entire life path of Ivan Flyagin, his foresight of the misfortune looming over the people and the fatherland, the foresight that he carried within himself over many years of “misfortune,” usually refers to the purely poetic element of the story. This is seen as fantastic, “wonderful” and therefore seemingly insignificant. But that's not true. Through the lips of Flyagin, Leskov not directly, but in a figurative, “prophetic” form, warned in the 70s of the 19th century: “there is destruction near us.” And the spiritual heroism of Ivan Flyagin is that with all his bitter, but highly dramatic fate, he convinces us: we must act “intelligibly,” with responsibility, with devotion to faith, without throwing away honor and concern for others. The time has come to pose the question this way - the only way! Otherwise – “all-destructiveness”.
The thorny life path of the protagonist, the hardships he suffered, seem to be crowned by this “truth of life” to which he strived. Flyagin needed her just like all people.
Sections: Literature
Purpose of the lesson. Consider Leskov’s concept of righteousness, find out what ethical principles the writer defines as the most important for a person.
No righteous man is without blemish,
Neither is a sinner without repentance.
"Reckless! What you sow
will not live unless he dies..."
(I Cor. 15.36) Apostle Paul
Lesson progress
1. Teacher's word
The theme of righteousness has always worried Russian writers of both the 19th and 20th centuries. Leskov looked for such people, although wherever he turned, he was told that all people were sinners. He decided to collect all this and then disassemble what here rises above the line of simple morality and therefore “Holy to the Lord.” We turn to the hero of N.S. Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer” Ivan Flyagin to decide who he is, a sinner or a righteous man?
When answering questions, try to adhere to the rules of discussion, remember that every point of view has the right to exist if it is reasoned and proven.
Sinner! He breaks God's laws.
What sins does Ivan Flyagin commit?
(At the age of 11, a nun kills, steals horses for gypsies, stole and ran away with his pupil from the master, flogged Savakirei to death; abandoned wives, children; was tempted by wine and female beauty.
The topic of suicide arises - one of the devil’s tasks is to push a person to commit the sin of suicide. Any sin can be forgiven, but “no one can even pray for them (suicides”).
Flyagin tried to hang himself twice.)
What crime becomes a turning point in his life?
(He admits: “I have destroyed many innocent souls in my time.” And of course, this is the death of Grusha.)
How do you feel about this action?
Why do you think it is a turning point?
(“She thinks not about herself, but about what will happen to her soul.” “Grusha’s soul is now lost, and it’s my duty to defend her and rescue her from hell.”)
Now let's pay attention to the epigraph. How do you understand the words of the Apostle Paul?
(Holy is not the one who does not commit sin, but the one who was able to repent, overcome it and find the strength to rise to a new, righteous life..)
Who can we call righteous?
Working with the Explanatory Dictionary
In the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” by S. Ozhegov and N. Shvedova we read: “ Righteous- for believers: a person who lives a righteous life has no sins. Righteous- pious, sinless, conforming to religious standards.
From the dictionary of V.I. Dahl: “A righteous person is someone who lives righteously, acts in everything according to God’s law, a sinless saint who has become famous for his exploits and holy life in ordinary conditions.”
Does this definition suit Ivan Flyagin?
(Of course, this is a kind, hardworking, truthful, honest person.) Examples.
But what is the most important quality of a righteous person?
(He lives by the most important commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The main thing in his actions is empathy, compassion. All his actions are selfless (Petr Serdyukov).
The hero lives in the interests of others, for the sake of others and for others, acts according to the dictates of his heart and does not consider this a sacrifice).
Where does Ivan Flyagin finally end up?
What is his main desire?
(“I really want to die for the people”)
Does Ivan Flyagin, the narrator at the end of the story, look like the guy who restrained the horses and cut off the cat’s tail?
(He is similar and not similar. He has become more responsible for the fate of other people, bears personal responsibility for the fate of the Motherland, is ready to die for it and for his people),
So who is he, Ivan Flyagin - a sinner or a righteous man?
(This is a sinner who repented of his sins, managed to overcome them and found the strength to rise to a new righteous life.
This is the righteous man, without whom, “according to the proverb, the village does not stand.” Neither the city. Neither the whole land is ours.” (A.I. Solzhenitsyn “Matrenin’s Dvor”)
Homework: Draw up a characterization plan for Ivan Flyagin.
All episodes of the story are united by the image of the main character - Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, shown as a giant of physical and moral power. “He was a man of enormous stature, with a dark, open face and thick, wavy, lead-colored hair: his streak of gray was so strange. He was dressed in a novice cassock with a wide monastic belt and a high black cloth cap... This new companion of ours... looked like he could be over fifty years old; but he was in the full sense of the word a hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-minded, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in the wonderful painting by Vereshchagin and in the poem of Count A.K. Tolstoy. It seemed that he would not walk around in a cassock, but would sit on his “forelock” and ride in bast shoes through the forest and lazily smell how “the dark forest smells of resin and strawberries.” The hero performs feats of arms, saves people, and goes through the temptation of love. He knows from his own bitter experience serfdom, he knows what it is to escape from a cruel master or soldier. Flyagin’s actions reveal such traits as boundless courage, courage, pride, stubbornness, breadth of nature, kindness, patience, artistry, etc. The author creates a complex, multifaceted character, positive at its core, but far from ideal and not at all unambiguous. The main feature of Flyagin is the “frankness of a simple soul.” The narrator likens him to God's baby, to whom God sometimes reveals his plans, hidden from others. The hero is characterized by a childish naivety of perception of life, innocence, sincerity, and selflessness. He is very talented. First of all, in the business that he was involved in as a boy, becoming a postilion for his master. When it came to horses, he “received a special talent from his nature.” His talent is associated with a heightened sense of beauty. Ivan Flyagin subtly feels female beauty, the beauty of nature, words, art - song, dance. His speech is striking in its poetry when he describes what he admires. Like any national hero, Ivan Severyanovich passionately loves his homeland. This is manifested in a painful longing for his native place, when he is in captivity in the Tatar steppes, and in the desire to take part in the coming war and die for his native land. Flyagin’s last dialogue with the audience sounds solemn. Warmth and subtlety of feeling in a hero coexist with rudeness, pugnacity, drunkenness, and narrow-mindedness. Sometimes he shows callousness and indifference: he beats a Tatar to death in a duel, does not consider unbaptized children as his own and leaves them without regret. Kindness and responsiveness to someone else's grief coexist in him with senseless cruelty: he gives the child to his tearfully begging mother, depriving himself of shelter and food, but at the same time, out of self-indulgence, he kills a sleeping monk.
Flyagin’s daring and freedom of feelings know no bounds (fight with a Tatar, relationship with Sgrushenka). He gives himself over to feeling recklessly and recklessly. Emotional impulses, over which he has no control, constantly break his destiny. But when the spirit of confrontation fades away in him, he very easily submits to the influence of others. The hero’s sense of human dignity is in conflict with the consciousness of a serf. But all the same, a pure and noble soul is felt in Ivan Severyanovich.
The hero's first name, patronymic and last name turn out to be significant. The name Ivan, which appears so often in fairy tales, brings him closer to both Ivan the Fool and Ivan the Tsarevich, who go through various trials. In his trials, Ivan Flyagin matures spiritually and becomes morally cleansed. The patronymic Severyanovich translated from Latin means “severe” and reflects a certain side of his character. The surname indicates, on the one hand, a penchant for a wild lifestyle, but, on the other hand, it recalls the biblical image of a person as a vessel, and a righteous person as a pure vessel of God. Suffering from the consciousness of his own imperfection, he goes, without bending, towards the feat, striving for heroic service to his homeland, feeling the divine blessing above him. And this movement, moral transformation constitutes the internal plot line of the story. The hero believes and searches. His life path is the path of knowing God and realizing oneself in God.
Ivan Flyagin personifies the Russian national character with all its dark and light sides, the people's view of the world. It embodies the enormous and untapped potential of people's power. His morality is natural, folk morality. Flyagin's figure acquires a symbolic scale, embodying the breadth, boundlessness, and openness of the Russian soul to the world. The depth and complexity of Ivan Flyagin’s character is helped by the various artistic techniques used by the author. The main means of creating the image of a hero is speech, which reflects his worldview, character, social status, etc. Flyagin’s speech is simple, full of vernacular and dialecticisms, there are few metaphors, comparisons, epithets in it, but they are bright and accurate. The hero's speech style is connected with the people's worldview. The image of the hero is also revealed through his attitude towards other characters about whom he himself talks. The character's personality is revealed in the tone of the narrative and in the choice of artistic means. The landscape also helps to feel the peculiarities of the character’s perception of the world. The hero’s story about life in the steppe conveys his emotional state, longing for his native place: “No, I want to go home... I was feeling homesick. Especially in the evenings, or even when the weather is good in the middle of the day, it’s hot, the camp is quiet, all the Tatars from the heat fall on the tents... A sultry look, cruel; there is no space; grass riot; the feather grass is white, fluffy, like a silver sea, agitated, and the smell carries on the breeze: it smells like a sheep, and the sun pours down, burns, and the steppe, as if a painful life, has no end in sight, and here there is no bottom to the depth of melancholy... You see for yourself you know where, and suddenly in front of you, no matter how you take it, there is a monastery or a temple, and you remember the baptized land and cry.”
The image of the wanderer Ivan Flyagin summarizes the remarkable features of energetic, naturally talented people, inspired by boundless love for people. It depicts a man from the people in the intricacies of his difficult fate, not broken, even though “he died all his life and could not die.”
The kind and simple-minded Russian giant is the main character and central figure of the story. This man with a childlike soul is distinguished by irrepressible fortitude and heroic mischief. He acts at the behest of duty, often on the inspiration of feeling and in a random outburst of passion. However, all his actions, even the strangest ones, are invariably born from his inherent love for humanity. He strives for truth and beauty through mistakes and bitter repentance, he seeks love and generously gives love to people. When Flyagin sees a person in mortal danger, he simply rushes to his aid. Just as a boy, he saves the count and countess from death, but he almost dies. He also goes instead of the old woman’s son to the Caucasus for fifteen years. Behind the external rudeness and cruelty, hidden in Ivan Severyanych is the enormous kindness characteristic of the Russian people. We recognize this trait in him when he becomes a nanny. He became truly attached to the girl he was courting. He is caring and gentle in his dealings with her.
“The Enchanted Wanderer” is a type of “Russian wanderer” (in the words of Dostoevsky). This is a Russian nature, requiring development, striving for spiritual perfection. He searches and cannot find himself. Each new refuge of Flyagin is another discovery of life, and not just a change in one activity or another. The broad soul of the wanderer gets along with absolutely everyone - be it wild Kyrgyz or strict Orthodox monks; he is so flexible that he agrees to live according to the laws of those who accepted him: according to Tatar custom, he fights to the death with Savarikei, according to Muslim custom, has several wives, takes for granted the cruel “operation” that the Tatars performed on him ; In the monastery, he not only does not complain about the fact that, as punishment, he was locked up for the whole summer in a dark cellar, but he even knows how to find joy in it: “Here you can hear the church bells, and your comrades have visited.” But despite such an accommodating nature, he does not stay anywhere for long. He does not need to humble himself and want to work in his native field. He is already humble and with his peasant rank he is faced with the need to work. But he has no peace. In life he is not a participant, but only a wanderer. He is so open to life that it carries him, and he follows its flow with wise humility. But this is not a consequence of mental weakness and passivity, but a complete acceptance of one’s fate. Often Flyagin is not aware of his actions, intuitively relying on the wisdom of life, trusting it in everything. And the higher power, before which he is open and honest, rewards him for this and protects him.
Ivan Severyanich Flyagin lives primarily not with his mind, but with his heart, and therefore the course of life imperiously carries him along, which is why the circumstances in which he finds himself are so varied.
Flyagin reacts sharply to insult and injustice. As soon as the count's German manager punished him for his offense with humiliating work, Ivan Severyanych, risking his own life, fled from his native place. Subsequently, he recalls it this way: “They tore me terribly cruelly, I couldn’t even get up... but that would have been nothing to me, but the final condemnation to stand on my knees and beat bags... it was already tormenting me... I just ran out of patience...” The most terrible and intolerable thing for an ordinary person is not corporal punishment, but an insult to self-esteem. out of despair, he runs away from them and goes “to the robbers.”
In “The Enchanted Wanderer”, for the first time in Leskov’s work, the theme of folk heroism is fully developed. the collective semi-fairy tale image of Ivan Flyagin appears before us in all his greatness, nobility of his soul, fearlessness and beauty and merges with the image of the heroic people. Ivan Severyanich’s desire to go to war is the desire to suffer one for all. love for the Motherland, for God, and Christian desire save Flyagin from death during his nine years of life among the Tatars. During all this time he was never able to get used to the steppes. He says: “No, sir, I want to go home... I feel sad.” What a great feeling is contained in his simple story about loneliness in Tatar captivity: “...There is no bottom to the depths of melancholy... You look, you don’t know where, and suddenly, no matter how much a monastery or a temple appears in front of you, you remember the baptized land and cry.” From Ivan Severyanovich’s story about himself, it is clear that the most difficult of the diverse life situations he experienced were precisely those that most bound his will and doomed him to immobility.
The Orthodox faith is strong in Ivan Flyagin. In the middle of the night in captivity, he “crawled out slowly behind the headquarters... and began to pray... so praying that even the snow under his knees would melt and where the tears fell, you could see the grass in the morning.”
Flyagin is an unusually gifted person; nothing is impossible for him. The secret of his strength, invulnerability and amazing gift - to always feel joy - lies in the fact that he always acts as circumstances require. He is in harmony with the world when the world is harmonious, and he is ready to fight evil when it stands in his way.
At the end of the story, we understand that, having arrived at the monastery, Ivan Flyagin does not calm down. He foresees war and is going to go there. He says: “I really want to die for the people.” These words reflect the main quality of the Russian person - the willingness to suffer for others, to die for the Motherland. Describing Flyagin's life, Leskov makes him wander, meet different people and entire nations. Leskov claims that such beauty of the soul is characteristic only of the Russian person and only the Russian person can demonstrate it so fully and widely.
The image of Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin is the only “through” image that connects all the episodes of the story. As already noted, it has genre-forming features, because his “biography” goes back to works with strict normative schemes, namely the lives of saints and adventure novels. The author brings Ivan Severyanovich closer not only to the heroes of lives and adventure novels, but also to epic heroes. This is how the narrator describes Flyagin’s appearance: “This new companion of ours looked like he could have been over fifty years old; but he was in the full sense of the word a hero, and, moreover, a typical, simple-minded, kind Russian hero, reminiscent of grandfather Ilya Muromets in Vereshchegin’s wonderful painting and in the poem by Count A.K. Tolstoy.4 It seemed that he would not walk in a cassock, but would sit on his “forelock” and ride in bast shoes through the forest and lazily smell how “the dark forest smells of resin and strawberries.” Flyagin's character is multifaceted. Its main feature is the “frankness of a simple soul.” The narrator likens Flyagin to “babies,” to whom God sometimes reveals his plans, hidden from the “reasonable.” The author paraphrases the gospel sayings of Christ: “... Jesus said: “... I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes”” (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, verse 25). Christ allegorically calls people with a pure heart wise and reasonable.
Flyagin is distinguished by his childish naivety and simplicity. In his ideas, demons resemble a large family, in which there are both adults and mischievous demon children. He believes in the magical power of the amulet - “a tight belt from the holy brave prince Vsevolod-Gabriel from Novgorod.” Flyagin understands the experiences of tamed horses. He subtly senses the beauty of nature.
But, at the same time, the soul of the enchanted wanderer is also characterized by some callousness and limitations (from the point of view of an educated, civilized person). Ivan Severyanovich coldly beats a Tatar to death in a duel and cannot understand why the story of this torture horrifies his listeners. Ivan brutally deals with the Countess's maid's cat, who strangled his beloved pigeons. He does not consider unbaptized children from Tatar wives in Ryn-Sands to be his own and leaves without a shadow of doubt and regret.
Natural kindness coexists in Flyagin’s soul with senseless, aimless cruelty. So, he, serving as a nanny for a young child and violating the will of his father, his master, gives the child to Ivan’s tearfully begging mother and her lover, although he knows that this act will deprive him of faithful food and force him to wander again in search of food and shelter . And he, in adolescence, out of self-indulgence, whips a sleeping monk to death.
Flyagin is reckless in his daring: just like that, disinterestedly, he enters into a competition with the Tatar Savakirei, promising an officer he knows to give a prize - a horse. He completely surrenders to the passions that take possession of him, embarking on a drunken spree. Struck by the beauty and singing of the gypsy Grusha, without hesitation, he gives her the huge sum of government money entrusted to him.
Flyagin’s nature is both unshakably firm (he sacredly professes the principle: “I will not give my honor to anyone”) and willful, pliable, open to the influence of others and even suggestion. Ivan easily assimilates the Tatars’ ideas about the justification of a mortal duel with whips. Hitherto not feeling the bewitching beauty of a woman, he - as if under the influence of conversations with a degenerate gentleman-magnetizer and the eaten "magic" sugar - "mentor" - finds himself enchanted by his first meeting with Grusha.
Flyagin’s wanderings, wanderings, and peculiar “quests” carry a “worldly” overtones. Even in the monastery he performs the same service as in the world - coachman. This motive is significant: Flyagin, changing professions and services, remains himself. He begins his difficult journey as a postilion, a rider of a horse in a harness, and in old age returns to the duties of a coachman.
The service of Leskov’s hero “with horses” is not accidental; it has an implicit, hidden symbolism. Flyagin’s changeable fate is like the fast running of a horse, and the “two-stranded” hero himself, who has withstood and endured many hardships in his lifetime, resembles a strong “Bityutsky” horse. Both Flyagin’s temper and independence are, as it were, compared with the proud horse’s temper, which the “enchanted wanderer” told about in the first chapter of Leskov’s work. The taming of horses by Flyagin correlates with the stories of ancient authors (Plutarach and others) about Alexander the Great, who pacified and tamed the horse Bucephalus.
And like the hero of epics who goes out to measure his strength “in an open field,” Flyagin is correlated with open, free space: with the road (the wanderings of Ivan Severyanovich), with the steppe (ten-year life in the Tatar Ryn-sands), with lake and sea space (meeting the narrator with Flyagin on a steamboat sailing on Lake Ladoga, a pilgrimage of a wanderer to Solovki). The hero wanders, moves in a wide, open space, which is not a geographical concept, but a value category. Space is a visible image of life itself, sending disasters and trials towards the hero-traveler.
In his wanderings and travels, Leskov’s character reaches the limits, the extreme points of the Russian land: he lives in the Kazakh steppe, fights against the mountaineers in the Caucasus, goes to the Solovetsky shrines on the White Sea. Flyagin finds himself on the northern, southern, and southeastern “borders” of European Russia. Ivan Severyanovich did not visit only the western border of Russia. However, Leskov’s capital may symbolically designate precisely the western point of Russian space. (Such a perception of St. Petersburg was characteristic of Russian literature of the 18th century and was recreated in Pushkin’s “The Bronze Horseman”). The spatial “scope” of Flyagin’s travels is significant: it symbolizes5 the breadth, boundlessness, and openness of the Russian people’s soul to the world.6 But the breadth of Flyagin’s nature, the “Russian hero,” is not at all equivalent to righteousness. Leskov repeatedly created in his works images of Russian righteous people, people of exceptional moral purity, noble and kind to the point of selflessness (“Odnodum”, “Immortal Golovan”, “Cadet Monastery”, etc.). However, Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin is not like that. He seems to personify the Russian folk character with all its dark and light sides and the people's view of the world.
The name Ivan Flyagin is significant. He is similar to the fairy-tale Ivan the Fool and Ivan the Tsarevich, going through various trials. In these trials, Ivan is cured and freed from his “stupidity” and moral callousness. But the moral ideals and norms of Leskov’s enchanted wanderer do not coincide with the moral principles of his civilized interlocutors and the author himself. Flyagin's morality is a natural, “common” morality.
It is no coincidence that the patronymic of Leskov’s hero is Severyanovich (severus - in Latin: stern). The surname speaks, on the one hand, of a former penchant for drinking and carousing, on the other hand, it seems to recall the biblical image of a person as a vessel, and a righteous person as a pure vessel of God.
Flyagin’s life path partly represents atonement for his sins: the “youthful” murder of a monk, as well as the murder of Grushenka, abandoned by her lover-prince, committed at her request. The dark, egoistic, “animal” force characteristic of Ivan in his youth gradually becomes enlightened and filled with moral self-awareness. In his declining years, Ivan Severyanovich is ready to “die for the people,” for others. But the enchanted wanderer still does not renounce many actions that are reprehensible for educated, “civilized” listeners, not finding anything bad in them.
This is not only limited, but also the integrity of the character of the protagonist, devoid of contradictions, internal struggle and introspection,7 which, like the motive of the predetermination of his fate, brings Leskov’s story closer to the classical, ancient heroic epic. B.S. Dykhanova characterizes Flyagin’s ideas about his fate in the following way: “According to the hero’s conviction, his destiny is that he is a son “prayed” and “promised”, he is obliged to devote his life to serving God, and the monastery should, it would seem, be perceived as the inevitable end of the road , finding a true calling. Listeners repeatedly ask the question of whether predestination has been fulfilled or not, but each time Flyagin avoids a direct answer.
“Why are you saying this... as if you’re not really saying it?
- - Yes, because how can I say for sure when I can’t even embrace all my vast flowing vitality?
- - What is this from?
- “Because, sir, I did a lot of things not even of my own free will.”
Despite the apparent inconsistency of Flyagin’s answers, he is strikingly accurate here. “The audacity of calling” is inseparable from one’s own will, one’s own choice, and the interaction of a person’s will with life circumstances independent of it gives rise to that living contradiction, which can only be explained by preserving it. In order to understand what his calling is, Flyagin has to tell his life “from the very beginning.”8 Flyagin’s life is bizarre, “mosaic”, it seems to fall apart into several independent “biographies”: the hero changes his occupation many times, finally, he is twice deprived of his own name (having become a soldier instead of a peasant recruit, then taking monasticism). Ivan Severyanovich can imagine the unity, the integrity of his life, only by recounting it all, from his very birth. This predetermination of the hero’s fate, in subordination and “bewitchment” by some force ruling over him, “not by his own will”, which Flyagin is driven by, is the meaning of the title of the story.
